The E. Africans have a lot of people with world class talent compared to other populations. But the overwhelming superiority that has been on display since '87 is due to drugs and political forces that want the E. Africans and other third world nations to "show up" the West.
Without drugs the Kenyans and Ethiopians would have had winners here and there, but not the sweeps we routinely see at most major championships. However, Westerners are now so weak, so brainwashed, so incapable of believing that people would actually set out with the worst of intentions against them, that they can't accept this. Look at how defensive these silly people when they come to defend, Bett, Kiprop, etc.
Probably the most interesting point brought up the past few months was the IAAF study done at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Athletes were tested for drugs (steroids etc. were not considered a violation at the time). Read Charlie Francis's book "Speed Trap" (he was Ben Johnson's coach). The Kenyans and Jamaicans all tested positive for dbol and other drugs. In 1968. Quite interesting that the IAAF tries to just keep quiet about this.
Anyway, lots of people have pointed out that the folks who have been providing the cash to help the E. African "success" going will probably pony up even more bucks to try and get more officials on board with helping poor third world folks make it to the top by any means necessary. They could be right. The corruption throughout the third world, not just E. Africa, is so pervasive that athletes will jump right in, and their own governments will try to back up the corruption as much as possible just to have something to point at for the masses, to keep attention off other things far more important than sports.
The cheating isn't going to stop anytime soon. When it ends, the media will twist the story and tell us the lack of times that match the marks posted in the 90s etc. is nothing more than a reflection of the lack of interest in the sport by African Supermen. If anything, the cheating killed off the sport in much of Europe in terms of interest in competing in events above 800m.
It's interesting that until EPO took hold in E. Africa, the Kenyans didn't have anyone who could beat the American record in the 1500, never mind getting the WR now held by El G, a man who was simply a talented runner who was a great responder to EPO much like Lagat, Bekele, Haile, Komen, Kiprop, and hundreds of others.
Once drugs are stamped out, if they're stamped out, and if Europeans and others get interested in the sport again, we'll still see E. Africans produce a higher percentage of World Class runners than other regions. But they won't sweep medals, win every race, and may go years between providing the very best athlete in a given event. But that's if drugs are stamped out via superb testing and if the rest of the world feels like putting in the work in the middle and long distances.
Either way, the dog and pony show of smiling Ethiopians and team tactic Kenyans who are the best responders to endurance drugs winning all the time will come to an end. Whether it's via drug testing and policing or the sport just collapsing because of this decades long fraud remains to be seen. The people who deny the truth of the drug use are as stupid as the people who blindly accept the age-cheating E. Africans indulge in to feed the greed they have for medals via any means available. Look up age cheating in youth soccer at the world level and who the biggest offenders were. Hint, it wasn't Asians, Europeans, or Middle Easterners. Look at how soccer cleaned that up. Track and field needs to get serious in that fashion.